


and i can't believe that we were ever strangers

by quirkdog



Series: can i tell you how i'm feeling? [2]
Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Getting Together, Love Confessions, M/M, there's some making out but nothing more intense than that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:48:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25134148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quirkdog/pseuds/quirkdog
Summary: followup to the first work in the series, but apart from a slight lack of context it should also work fine on its own. troy & abed get together and that's literally the whole thing.
Relationships: Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Series: can i tell you how i'm feeling? [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1820587
Comments: 6
Kudos: 117





	and i can't believe that we were ever strangers

**Author's Note:**

> title comes from strangers by josh ritter, a song that makes me feel crazy for a variety of reasons.
> 
> these men live in my head rent free. enjoy

The day after they finish their junior year of college, Troy and Abed celebrate by marathoning the short-lived 1990s animated Kickpuncher spinoff series. They’re halfway through the fifth episode when Abed pauses it suddenly, deep in thought.

“You okay, buddy?” Troy asks, because he thought they had both been getting into the show. They’ve been working on being more open about their emotions with each other, though, so if Abed wants to tell him something, he’s more than willing to hear him out.

Abed thinks for several more seconds before responding, still staring off into space. “When we were having our talk the other week, your date with Britta came up, and you said that you didn’t like her in that way, and then you started to say something else, but you stopped. What were you going to say?”

Ah. Troy had been hoping Abed hadn’t noticed that, or had forgotten about it. He should have known he wouldn’t be that lucky. He’d almost slipped up back then, almost mentioned something about possibly not liking girls. But the conversation they’d been having was serious and important, and also he didn’t know how Abed would react if he knew, and also it was just all very new to Troy and he was still trying to process the whole _not liking girls_ thing (he’s having a lot of trouble using the actual word, even to himself), let alone the fact that he’s maybe sort of totally in love with his best friend. He still hasn’t told Abed. He’s been thinking maybe he never will.

But Abed is sitting in front of him, tilting his head slightly and looking at Troy curiously, and Troy figures that he owes Abed the truth, that their policy of honesty is more important than Troy’s own hangups. Abed is his best friend, and Troy has no reason to believe that this will change things between them. Their friendship has survived worse.

He’s still terrified.

“Yeah,” he says, glancing around the apartment to make sure they’re alone (it’s more of a nervous tic than anything else, he knows that Annie is at the grocery store and won’t be home for at least another half hour). “Um, I was just...I’ve been thinking a lot lately. About Britta. And about the girls that I dated in high school. And I think, like...I liked them, obviously. But not in the way I was supposed to? And the more I think about it, the more I think…” His hands are shaking like crazy, and he takes a deep breath. “I think maybe I don’t like girls like that. Like, at all.”

He waits for Abed to process that, and he feels like his heart is going to beat out of his chest.

“So,” Abed says slowly, “you’re gay?”

It’s the first time anyone has ever used that word to describe Troy that isn’t in a negative context—boys in middle school trying to get a rise out of him, football coaches hurling motivational insults, Pierce in general—and his knee jerk reaction is to deny it. Abed isn’t using it negatively, though, he’s just using it as a neutral descriptor. Once he gets over his initial shock, he realizes that it actually feels sort of comfortable.

“Yeah.” He exhales shakily. “I think I am.”

Abed nods once and smiles at Troy. “Cool,” he says, then grabs the remote to resume the show.

“Wait,” Troy says, and puts his hand over Abed’s on the remote, because he feels like this conversation is far from over. “So you’re okay with that? With me...liking guys?”

Abed puts the remote down and turns so he’s fully facing Troy. “Of course I am. I do, too.”

Troy feels like he’s missing something. “You do...what?”

“Like guys,” Abed replies nonchalantly. “And girls. I’m bisexual.”

Okay, that’s definitely news to Troy. “You are?”

“Yeah. I never mentioned it because when we first became friends you were really adamant about being straight, and I was afraid that you’d think having a bisexual friend would threaten your masculinity and you wouldn’t want to hang out with me anymore. And then after that, it just never seemed relevant.” He shrugs.

Troy sheepishly rubs the back of his neck. He doesn’t really like thinking about how much of an asshole he’d been for most of freshman year. “Yeah, I think part of me kind of always knew, and I was...overcompensating? Like if I tried hard enough to convince everyone else, then maybe I could convince myself too. That doesn’t excuse the way I acted, though. Sorry about that.”

“It’s okay,” Abed responds. “You had to start somewhere before you could go through your character development.”

Troy smiles at that. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” This is going much better than he expected, so he decides to push his luck. “So…you like guys. And you’re okay with it when guys like you?”

“Well, yeah,” Abed says like it’s obvious, and maybe it is. Or it should be, at least. “It would be kind of hypocritical if I wasn’t.”

“Even if you don’t like them back?”

Troy’s not sure if Abed can tell that he’s deliberately asking leading questions, but he answers as patiently as ever. “As long as they don’t throw drinks in my face or something when they find out.” Troy opens his mouth to ask about that, but Abed waves it off. “It’s a long story. Anyway, if they’re not jerks about it, I’m fine with it. It happens pretty often. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m pretty adorable.”

Troy swallows and tries to chuckle as naturally as possible (he’s pretty sure he fails). He’s acutely aware of how adorable Abed is. “Okay,” he says, “but what if, theoretically, it was one of your friends? Would that change anything?”

“What, you mean like Jeff?” Abed asks bemusedly. “Troy, I’m like ninety nine percent sure that Jeff is straight, and even if he wasn’t, I don’t think that I’m—”

“I mean,” Troy interrupts, “ _theoretically,_ if it was your _best friend_. In theory.”

Abed considers that for a moment. “Well, I guess that would be different.”

Troy’s heart sinks into his stomach, but he tries not to show how crushed he feels. He forces himself to smile at Abed before turning back toward the TV. “Okay.” He shrugs. “Just wondering.”

“It would be different,” Abed continues quietly, as if he hadn’t heard Troy, “because it wouldn’t be unrequited.”

Troy is suddenly finding it very hard to breathe.

“Um, just so we’re clear, _unrequited_ means—”

“Unreciprocated. One-sided.”

“So, if it’s _not_ unrequited, that means…” He dares to look back at Abed, who nods slowly. “Oh. Um. I think I’m in love with you.”

“Cool,” Abed replies, and from the way his voice sounds he’s having as much trouble breathing as Troy is. They both sit there staring at each other for several seconds, and then Troy’s mouth finally catches up to his brain.

“I kind of really want to kiss you right now.”

Abed practically falls out of his chair in his haste to kneel next to Troy, and then they’re leaning in toward each other and they’re kissing, and it’s simple and chaste but it’s still unlike any other kiss Troy has ever experienced. He decides to open his mouth slightly, testing the waters, and Abed eagerly takes the hint.

After several seconds, Troy reluctantly breaks it off and looks at Abed. “Is this okay?” he asks, and it seems like Abed is more than okay with it, but he wants to make sure. “I know sometimes change can be hard, I don’t want to overwhelm you or anything.”

“I appreciate your concern,” Abed says, staring at Troy’s mouth, “but I’ve been running simulations for this scenario since freshman year. I think I’m okay.”

Troy’s not quite sure if he should find that confession as incredibly hot as he does, but he’s not really worried about that right now, so he nods and goes back to kissing Abed. He reaches up to tangle his fingers in Abed’s hair, and then Abed _climbs onto his lap_ , and he’s pretty sure that this is officially the best day of his life.

At some point, it occurs to Troy that they’re not going to stop anytime soon, and that Annie is probably going to come home with the groceries before this reaches its natural conclusion. He’s about to say something, but then Abed moves down from Troy’s mouth to his _neck_ , and Troy doesn’t think he’s ever heard himself make _that_ sound before, and his train of thought is completely and utterly derailed.

That is, until he hears the sound of keys in the lock and the door being opened. “Abed,” Annie calls, “they didn’t have any whole milk, so I got—” She cuts herself off with a small yelp when she sees the two of them. They’re not actively kissing anymore, they stopped when they heard the door open, but Abed is still perched on Troy’s lap with his hands braced on the armrests of Troy’s chair, and his hair is mussed up where Troy was grabbing it, and they’re both breathing very, very hard.

“Hi Annie,” Abed says, and it’s obvious that he’s aiming for a casual tone, but his voice sounds totally wrecked. Troy takes selfish pride in the fact that _he_ is the one who did that.

Annie, who hasn’t moved at all since she noticed them, seems to snap out of a trance. She carefully puts the bag of groceries she’s holding on the ground next to her, then starts backing slowly toward the door. “Um. I can go, if you guys want some time to, um—”

“No,” Abed says quickly, standing up. Troy misses his presence on his lap immediately. “Stay. We’re done.”

“Yeah,” Troy says, trying and failing to make his voice sound normal. He stands up too, but he doesn’t turn to face Annie, he doesn’t want her to see how hard he is. He feels like he’s a teenager whose mom just walked in on him. “Abed and I were just, um, gonna go to the Dreamatorium. To talk. About, um, stuff. You know.” Abed thankfully seems to pick up on the cue, because he nods stiffly.

“Okay,” Annie says, leaning down to pick up the bag of groceries. “Well. Have fun.” She goes to the kitchen to start putting things away, and Troy and Abed make a beeline for the Dreamatorium. Troy shuts the door behind them.

“So,” he says after several seconds of silence. “That happened.”

“Which part are you talking about?” Abed asks, which is a really good question.

“All of it, I guess.”

“Yeah,” Abed agrees. He looks at Troy like he’s analyzing him. “Are you okay? I know that you probably still have some hangups about your sexuality, and we weren’t expecting Annie to walk in on us like that. If you want, we can pretend this never happened and ask Annie not to tell anyone about it, at least until you’re more comfortable with it. Or ever.”

Troy is touched that Abed would consider his feelings like that. Now that it’s out there, though, he realizes that he doesn’t really want to hide anymore. He’s done enough of that.

“No, it’s okay. I mean, are you okay? With this? With...us? Is that, I mean, are we—”

Abed holds up a hand. “Troy,” he says, making direct eye contact. “Will you go out with me?” Troy needs several seconds to process the question, and Abed continues. “I just want to make it official. Unambiguous.”

Troy feels his face split into a wide grin. “Yes. Yes I do.”

“Cool,” Abed says, smiling back at him. “Cool cool cool.” He slips his hand into Troy’s, and Troy thinks that he’s never felt anything more perfect in his life. “We should probably tell Annie.”

“Yeah,” Troy agrees, “we probably should. Shall we?” Abed nods, and they step out of the Dreamatorium together. Annie is still in the kitchen stocking the cabinets, and she looks up when Troy closes the door behind them.

“Hey guys,” she says, somewhat cautiously. “How’s...you know...everything?”

“Well,” Troy says, and he can’t stop smiling. “We, um, have an announcement.”

“Troy and I are together,” Abed finishes happily, lifting up their joined hands for emphasis.

Annie looks between the two of them several times before squealing with delight. “You guys,” she says excitedly, running over to hug them both. “That’s so awesome! I’m so happy for you. Really.” She steps back, and her eyes get very wide. “Um, completely unrelated, but I just remembered that Jeff owes me fifty dollars. If you’ll excuse me.” She pulls out her phone and practically runs to her bedroom, throwing out a quick _congratulations!_ before shutting the door.

Troy turns to look at Abed. “That was weird, right?”

“Yeah,” Abed agrees. “That was weird.” They both shrug and head back over to the TV to finish their show. They sit down and Abed wordlessly takes Troy’s hand in the gap between their chairs, giving him a small smile as he hits play on the remote.

It’s different, but also in a lot of ways it’s the same. They still make fun of the writing and the animation, competing to see who can make the other laugh harder. They’re still Troy and Abed, just with an upgrade to their relationship. A totally amazing upgrade, one that Troy still can’t quite believe is real. While they’re watching, he keeps finding himself looking away from the screen and over at Abed. At his _boyfriend_.

 _This summer,_ he thinks, _is gonna be_ awesome.


End file.
